The first thing I saw when I would open my eyes was the wood that made up the inside of the cabin. No matter which direction I faced when I slept, that was what I would wake up to. The warm brown panels lined the ceiling, reminding me of the panels on the ceiling of the church sanctuary. In church I would often count them over and over to fight boredom, and I had found I could also do this when I couldn’t sleep.

Other note worthy and countable features of the cabin porch in which I slept were the many windows. They lined the walls and had no curtains, so I could see the tall trees around us at all times. Sometimes I would sit up just enough to see the lake lapping at the crooked shore before drifting off to sleep. It was a beautiful place to sleep when the nights were gentle, with the wind swaying the leaves and the smell of crackling campfires from the beach lulling me into a peaceful slumber. Other nights were significantly less pleasant, when the trees bent to and fro and I could feel the thunder in my bones. I am generally a fan of the grandeur of thunderstorms, but being out on the porch during one left me frightened and cold.

Now a days I would jump at the chance to spend a weekend alone with storms on the cabin porch. Being that close to nature’s mood swings would make me feel like I had finally found an exterior that matches my interior.

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This is a youth-powered social network that was started in 2003 by a group of teachers from local sites of the National Writing Project.

We merged several earlier blogging projects. We have found that there are many advantages to bringing students together in one site that lives beyond any particular class. It's easier for individual students to read and write about their own passions, to connect with other students, comment on each other's work, and create multimedia posts for each other. Further, it's been exciting for us to pool our knowledge about curriculum, connected learning, and digital literacies.

If being part of such a community makes sense to you, we invite you to join us. We welcome all youth and any teacher interested in having students publish online and participate in the give and take of a social network like Youth Voices.